


The Six Stages of Pining

by historyoflight



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Dragon slayers BrOtp, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, High School AU, Human!Dragons, M/M, Modern AU, Romance, Sabertooth - Freeform, These clueless dorks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-07-29 18:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7694695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historyoflight/pseuds/historyoflight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pining (verb): To yearn deeply; suffer with longing. Example: Sting Eucliffe, a student at Fiore High School, and his friend Rogue Cheney were seen pining after one another by everyone except themselves. How oblivious can two people be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Sting wake up! You don’t want to be late for your first day of high school.”

Weisslogia stood at the foot of the bed, staring at the unmoving lump under the blankets that was his son. Sting groaned into the pillow, sleepily turning to grab his phone off the nightstand to check the time. _6:00 AM. Way to early to be awake._ He shoved the pillow over his head in an attempt to go back to sleep, but Weisslogia wasn’t having it.

“Oh no you don’t,” Weisslogia said, promptly pulling the covers off of Sting, leaving him in nothing but his dragon boxers.

“What the hell was that for?” Sting said angrily, sitting up.

“If you want to get the covers back you’ll have to get up and get them,” Weisslogia replied, a playful smile on his face as he walked out of the room. Waiting until he was gone, Sting stood up and reached for the blanket.

“Well since you’re already up you might as well get ready for school,” Weisslogia smirked, sticking his head through the doorframe. Sting knew he was defeated, so he shooed Weisslogia away, threw the covers back on the bed, and went to his closet to pick out an outfit. Considering this was his first day at a new school he wanted to make a good first impression, and that started with what clothes you wear. After much debate he finally settled on a pair of ripped jeans and a plain navy blue t-shirt. To add a bit of flare he put in his single dangling crystal earring that he always wore. It was a functioning outfit, nothing that would draw too much attention, just a simple get-up.

Once that decision was made it was time for hair, which consisted of Sting brushing it and nothing else. Midway through his “routine” Sting caught the scent of something delicious coming from the kitchen. Sting decided that food was more important than how his hair looked, so he abandoned the brush and ran downstairs.

Weisslogia was at the stove quietly whistling to himself. With one hand he was holding a pan and with the other he was pouring batter into it. On the counter next to him was a plate stacked high with pancakes, a pat of butter on top and syrup pouring down the sides.

“No way! I knew I smelled something good,” Sting exclaimed, racing over to grab the pancakes.

“I figured today was a special day, so I whipped these up as a treat,” Weisslogia said.

“Mmf. These are good,” Sting said, already beginning to wolf down his breakfast.

“Thank you. Now do you have everything you need for today?”

“I think so.”

“Books?”

“Yup.”

“Pencils?”

“Got em’”

“Paper?”

“Yes Weisslogia I got all that stuff.” Sting smiled at his father, then continued to eat the pancakes. It didn’t take long for him to finish despite the amount, and in no time at all he started to get ready to leave. Putting on his bookbag and tying up his black Converse, he began to say goodbye and make his way out the door. Sting had terrible motion sickness as he discovered the first time he rode a school bus in kindergarten (not a pleasant experience), so he walked to school instead. Luckily, his house was only a few blocks from the high school so it wasn’t a problem. As he took a step outside Weisslogia called him back in, and when Sting went back into the kitchen Weisslogia wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into a hug.

“Listen Sting. I know entering a new school is difficult but I just want you to know that I’m very proud of you. I know that you’ll do great because you-” Weisslogia let go of Sting and instead placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder “-have the heart of a dragon. Don’t ever forget that.”

“I won’t. Well I should get going. Bye!” Sting waved and walked away. Before he left however, he ran back to Weisslogia and gave him another hug.

“Thanks Dad,” Sting said, then let go and finally began his walk to school. Without turning around Sting sensed that Weisslogia was smiling proudly at him, and with that knowledge any ounce of worry inside of him drifted away into the morning breeze.

* * *

 

Fiore High School was unlike anything Sting had ever encountered. Students of all shapes and sizes roamed the halls like they owned the place. The hierarchy of popularity was clear even upon only being in the building for a few minutes. There were the jocks, the cheerleaders, the band geeks, all the usual suspects one would expect from a high school. A giant sign was plastered to the wall that read _Go Wizards!_ and was painted in the school colors of red and yellow. It was at this moment, standing in the middle of hall, that Sting realized he had no idea what he was doing.

He pulled up his schedule on his phone, thinking that maybe it would at least give him a sense of direction. His first class was chemistry with a Mr. Ichiya in room 240. None of that meant anything to him considering he didn’t know who or where the hell that was. The only thing he could figure out was that the class was upstairs, so Sting made his way down the hall to try and find the nearest staircase. As he walked he scanned the halls for a familiar face, someone to share in his struggles. He might have not had tons of friends in middle school, but there were a few people that Sting would love to see right about now and unfortunately, they were nowhere to be found.

Seeing a flight of stairs up ahead, Sting made his way up to the second floor and decided to pick a direction and just start walking. He paid attention to the room numbers as he went by to try and gauge whether he was getting closer or farther away from 240. Sting, oblivious to his surroundings, rounded a corner and unfortunately smacked right into another person, sending them both to the floor.

“Hey sorry about tha- Wait… Yukino?” The girl he had knocked over had short, snow-white hair with a cobalt rose pinned to it, brown eyes, and was wearing a similarly white tank top and royal blue skirt with a pair of white flats. There was no doubt about it: it was her.

“Sting! Oh my gosh I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to-”

“Don’t worry about it, it was my fault for not paying attention. Here let me help you up.”

Sting offered Yukino his hand and he helped pull her off the floor. They started catching up and it was like they never been apart. The two had been best friends from middle school, ever since they were in the same gym class in 6th grade and Yukino accidentally gave Sting a concussion from a poorly aimed dodgeball. Not the greatest way to make friends, but in their case it worked. Sting got to leave early from class while recovering and when he needed someone to go with him (because of school policy) Yukino happily volunteered as a sort of apology.

Over the summer Yukino had been away at camp so her and Sting didn’t get the chance to talk much. This was where school actually came in handy: it allowed Sting to see his friends, like Yukino, almost everyday. While they were talking they found out that they were in the same chemistry class and that Yukino actually knew where she was going; her sister Sorano graduated from here just last year. She lead the way down the winding halls as Sting tried to remember the route for when he had to get there by himself. Ultimately, he gave up in favor of just letting her be his GPS.

The pair arrived in the classroom just as the obnoxious bell started to ring overhead. They took the last two remaining seats and listened for the principal, Mr. Makorav, to give the morning announcements.

“Morin’ everybody! It’s good to have you brats back in school. For those of you who are just starting out here, I’m your principal Makarov and I welcome you to Fiore High! For those of you who aren’t new, well you know the drill by now. I know I say this every first day of school but let’s make this the best year ever! Let’s start out by beating those Alvarez punks during the football season huh? GO WIZARDS! Anyway I hope you all had a great summer and let’s get to learning!”

No one really knew what to say after the announcements considering the class was all freshman and _that_ was their first introduction to their principal. Luckily their teacher, Mr. Ichiya, broke the silence by introducing himself. He started going over the class syllabus and lab safety, then transitioned into talking about all the different “parfumes” that they were going to create during the year; at this point Sting started to question the man’s sanity. Once his rant was over the chemistry teacher went down the list and gave everyone lab partners. Since it was in alphabetical order by last name, Yukino was one of the first ones called.

“Yukino Agria. You’re going to be paired with Sting Eucliffe.” They both looked over at each other and smiled, thankful that they were partners. When Sting thought about how his first day of high school was going to be, he didn’t expect it to be going this well. First pancakes from Weisslogia, now lab partners with his best friend, the day kept getting better. Maybe high school wasn’t as bad as he thought it was.

* * *

 

Nope, scratch that, high school was the devil and likewise, should burn in hell.

Everything after Sting’s chemistry class had been a nightmare. During history he was put at a table with the most insufferable girls he’d ever met; it was like the cast of Mean Girls (he only watched it once ok?) had climbed through the screen and into the desks. The only saving grace was that the teacher seemed nice, but with the peanut gallery constantly flapping their gums he could barely hear her. Gym class was no better, seeing as they were playing soccer which was one of Sting’s worst sports. The one time he tried to kick the ball he slipped in mud while half the class laughed. So yeah, things weren’t looking too good.

And now, he was faced with the terrifying prospect of finding a place to sit for lunch. He planned on sitting with Yukino, but as he scanned the cafeteria she was nowhere to be found. _What the hell? I figured she’d be here… Where else is there to eat in this place?_ He thought about leaving to try and find her, but quickly realized he would most likely get lost and miss lunch entirely. Sighing, he looked around and found a table with an open space. It was the only option, so he walked over and sat down without saying a word.

Sting took to people-watching, looking around like he was watching a documentary on hormonal teenagers. Nothing interesting was going on though, just normal lunch time antics. That was until he looked towards the right end of his table, where he saw two boys that were clearly arguing. The one had messy pink hair and a black and white scarf, while the other had spiky black hair and a sword necklace. The two were shouting, wildly gesticulating in the others’ direction, and occasionally throwing food. There were two girls sitting next to them, a blonde and a redhead, who just looked annoyed.

Somehow the fight was entrancing and Sting found he couldn’t look away. Unfortunately though, at some point he made eye contact with the pink haired one and he got out of his seat, along with the other, and together they walked over to Sting.

“Hey you! You saw what was going on right?” the pink haired one started.

“Y-yeah,” Sting said,” look I don’t want any trouble I was just-”

“So you _clearly_ agree with me that Charmander is the superior starter Pokemon, unlike Elsa over here with his Squirtle.”

“What…”

“No way man!” the raven haired one refuted,” My Squirtle would destroy your fucking Charmander you know why? Because Fire types are weak to water types, so there!”

“Yeah? Well let’s talk evolutions, Gray. What does your crappy little turtle turn into? Oh yeah, a crappy little turtle with cannons. You know what Charmander’s final evolution is? A FUCKING FIRE DRAGON! Beat that!”

“Uh don’t insult Blastoise because you know that those cannons would blow your Charizard away, flame brain. Don’t you agree new guy?”

Their eyes focused on Sting, and honestly he was afraid that no matter what he said that they were gonna beat him up. After a few tense seconds he decided to just say what he thought.

“Personally I’m a Bulbasaur guy myself, but if I had to pick between those two I would have to go with… Charmander.”

“Hell yeah, score one for Natsu!”

“What the shit? I thought I could trust you new guy.”

“Well why would he side with you when I’m obviously the better option.”

“Better option? I’m the better Pokemon player here and everyone knows it.”

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK ICICLE!”

Natsu and Gray walked back to their original seats still bickering, completely forgetting about Sting. By the time all that was over the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, yet Sting had only taken a few bites of his sandwich. He picked up his bookbag and started making his way to his next class, reflecting on what just happened. _Those guys were kinda crazy, but they seemed really cool! Maybe I can be friends with that Natsu guy… too bad I didn’t give him my name. Oh well, maybe I can at lunch tomorrow!_

* * *

 

Last period. Finally, Sting had made it. The day had its ups and downs but at least it was almost over. The last challenge he had to face was, of all things, algebra.

Math was by far Sting’s least favorite subject. All the numbers, formulas, and other stuff just bored him and frankly, he couldn’t be bothered to remember them all. He also could never really grasp the concepts; there were multiple ways to do every problem yet Sting always chose the wrong way. Because of this he was already put in a bad mood when he walked into the room and was assaulted by posters with terrible math puns and as many numbers of pi that could fit on the paper. He took a seat in the back, hoping that he could just zone out and doodle in his notebook.

Once the bell rang the teacher, Ms. Libra, took attendance then started going over the first day things that every single other teacher had said that day. At this point Sting had had enough of this and just wanted to go home, so he began inconspicuously drawing little dragons on his paper instead of listening. He had just finished his first one when the door to the classroom slammed open, causing everyone to look up.

It was a boy of average height with jet black hair strewn across the right side of his face. He had ruby red eyes and a scar across the bridge of his nose, and was wearing a plain gray t-shirt, black jeans, and sneakers. He was out of breath and his bag was opened, clearly having struggled to get here. Even though this kid was a mess, Sting found himself strangely captivated.

“Ah you must be Rogue Cheney,” Ms. Libra said,” I was wondering why someone would miss the first day of school. Come in, find a seat.” Rogue glanced around the room and walked towards the open seat in front of Sting as the algebra teacher proceeded with her lesson.

“Is this seat taken?” Rogue whispered to Sting as he stood in front of the desk in question. Sting just stared for a moment, screaming at himself to answer but finding he couldn’t.

“N-nope. It’s all yours,” Sting finally sputtered out.

“Cool. Hey did I miss anything before I got here?” Rogue asked as he sat down.

“Just the class outline but, who cares about that hehe…”

“Right… Ok thank you.” Rogue turned around, leaving Sting to be very confused.

_What the fuck Sting? Why are you acting like this? You sounded like an idiot in front of the new guy! He probably thinks you’re some low life who doesn’t care about class and does drugs in the back of the school or something. Maybe that’s too far. Whatever, who’s he to judge anyway? He just waltzes in here 10 minutes late like it’s nothing. And he has that dumb looking emo haircut. Did he crawl straight out of MySpace? And how does it look so damn soft? The nerve of that guy… Wait a minute what did I just say?_

This was Sting’s inner monologue for the remainder of class, a mixture of anger and confusion all centered around the boy sitting right in front of him. Once class was over he was relieved to get out of there, feeling frustrated and ready to go take a nap at home. He blamed his emotions on all the stuff that happened to him today, mostly math because it always drained him the most. The funny thing was that it was just as he had told Rogue: they had just gone over the class outline.

But who cares about that anyway?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I've been super busy lately but hey, here's chapter 2. Hope you enjoy!

Chemistry was easily Yukino’s favorite class. The teacher was eccentric which made lessons entertaining, plus with her and Sting as lab partners it made for a pretty enjoyable time. Their labs usually turned into rants, mainly from Sting but sometimes Yukino would air out some of her grievances. There were never boundaries between the two so they had no issue sharing their problems with each other. As the leaves started changing colors and the air became cold and crisp one thing stayed consistent: their friendship. 

It was during one of their “therapy sessions” that Yukino found out about Rogue. They were performing a lab where the only thing they had to do was boil water and record how long it took, so naturally they were bored. Yukino remembered Sting talking about an algebra test that he took a few days prior and asked him how it went. She quickly realized her mistake as Sting immediately crossed his arms and looked just as steamed as the vapor coming off the beaker of water.

“How’d I do? Ha! A whopping 68%, my test looked like a murder victim with all the red marks. The worst part about it though? Rogue, that bastard, got a 85! Without studying! Like how is that possible, even when I study I don’t do that well.”

“Wait who?” Yukino asked.

“Oh yeah you don’t know him. Rogue sits in front of me in algebra, has jet black hair that covers half his face, he’s a math genius. I didn’t even think he could see the board with that fringe.”

With that, Sting started talking all about how Rogue always aces every test and always gets questions right. He talked for probably five minutes while Yukino just listened, wondering why he was so eager to talk about this kid who he seemed to hate.

The thought haunted her for months, because after every algebra quiz or test or anything Sting would always come into class with a story about how Rogue did this or said that. It wasn’t that she didn’t like to hear about it because Sting was good at telling stories, it just baffled her as to _why_ he would tell them. After listening to these tales for long enough, Yukino finally asked Sting: “If you don’t like Rogue, why do you always talk about him?”

The question took Sting by surprise. "I don't always talk about him," he protested.

“Really? I think I hear at least 3 stories a week. Why do you care so much?”

Sting thought it over for a minute, trying to come up with an answer. He usually didn’t let people get to him this much, so why now? Why him?

“I think it’s because I envy him,” he started, “I’m shit at algebra, but here he is acing every test like it’s nothing. Even when I study I don’t get over a B, yet he doesn’t have to try to get the same grade. I just wish I could be as smart as him you know?”

“Then why don’t you ask him for help? He would probably tutor you if you asked.”

“Eh I don’t know… We don’t talk much outside of class so it might be kinda of weird.”

“Invite him to eat lunch with us then! That way you could get to know him better. Plus if it gets awkward you’ll have us to help you out.”

“You sure this is a good idea?” 

“Of course. And if we find out he’s a jerk then we can forget about the whole thing.”

“Alright fine. I’ll text him.”

Sting pulled out his phone and sent the message, showing it to Yukino after he finished.

“Moulin Rogue?” Yukino said, referring to the contact name at the top of the screen.

“What? You expected me to give him a normal name, huh YukiYas?”

Yukino pretended to pout but immediately broke into laughter along with Sting. At that point they had almost finished the lab, so they cleaned up their area and sat back down at their desks. Mr. Ichiya went over the results and once he was done there was only a minute left of class. Sting promised to tell her if Rogue responded, so when they were dismissed and went their separate ways Yukino took her phone from her bag and put it into her pocket.

She anxiously waited for a text all throughout next period. It was usually only her, Sting, and her friend Minerva during lunch so she was excited to have another person, especially since it was the person Sting had been talking about for months. She had tried to imagine what he was like from Sting’s descriptions, but it was more than likely that he exaggerated the details.

Eventually, about 5 minutes before lunch, Yukino received a text from Sting saying that Rogue had accepted their invitation. As soon as class ended she excitedly ran to her locker to grab what she needed for the second half of the day. She said hi to her locker neighbor and classmate Lucy, shut the locker, and made her way to the usual lunch spot.

Yukino and Minerva had figured out their desired lunch hangout before school started. They both went to the same summer camp and became friendly there. Minerva was a sophomore this year so she told Yukino where the best place was for them to sit instead of the craziness of the cafeteria. Unfortunately, Yukino forgot to tell Sting the plan on the first day which he was very pissed about, but he quickly got over it. Luckily Sting and Minerva got along quite well, although Sting would admit that she could sometimes be pretty scary.

Yukino walked to their quiet hallway and, seeing that Minerva was already there, sat down next to her. The sophomore was made aware of who was joining them for the day, to which she just shrugged and started eating her lunch. They engaged in typical small talk for a few minutes until Sting finally showed up with Rogue.

The two sat across from the girls and Sting introduced his plus one to them. Rogue gave a soft "hello," waved, then said noting. For how Sting had described him Yukino expected him to have a bigger presence. On the contrary, he was rather quiet and for the first few minutes of lunch the group was uncharacteristically silent. Yukino took it upon herself to strike up conversation.

"So, it's nice to meet you Rogue. I've heard a lot about you from Sting," she started.

"Really?" Rogue questioned.

"Oh yeah. You should hear him in our chemistry class," Sting shot her a glare but she ignored it.

"Anyway," she continued," I haven't seen you around much. Who do you usually sit with?"

"Oh my friends from middle school, Gajeel Redfox and Juvia Lockser. They're kinda crazy, but we've been together since like 6th grade. Although lately Juvia's been running off to go sit by some guy from her gym class who she has a major crush on. Once she falls in love nothing can stand in her way."

While he started describing his friend's antics Rogue's phone went off from his back pocket. He checked it, telling Sting that it was an alert from their algebra teacher. Apparently she assigned a new project that would teach them about the formulas associated with circles.

"What do we have to do? Make a pie?" Sting said sarcastically.

"Actually yes," Rogue said. Sting immediately looked over Rogue's shoulder in order to read the project requirements off the phone. He was right, in pairs students were assigned to make a pie and then find the area and circumference of it; the terminology made Sting's head spin. To top it off Ms. Libra had already paired everyone up herself, and guess who was together?

"Well it looks like we're partners," Rogue said to Sting," do you have any idea how to make a pie?"

"Nope. But I know someone who does." Sting smiled devilishly at Minerva, knowing that she was an amazing cook.

"Sorry Sting but I can't help you. I have soccer practice almost everyday, I barely have time to do my own homework."

"Dammit. Yukinoooo." Sting directed his pleas towards her; she was his only hope at passing this.

"I'm free Saturday, but I'll only do it under one condition," she said.

"I'll do anything," Sting begged.

"On the next lab, you have to do the write-up. All of it."

Sting debated with himself for a minute, and realizing that there was no other option he complied. The three agreed to meet at his house the upcoming Saturday and they resumed to normal conversation. Rogue seemed to already become more comfortable with the group, participating in conversation and even cracking a few jokes. After getting to know him, it was clear to Yukino why Sting would gravitate towards him.

* * *

The school week dragged on until it was finally the day of the project. Weisslogia picked Yukino up and drove her over to the Eucliffe household. She had brought a couple things to help out with the process: a rolling pin, measuring cups, and enough conversation topics to avoid any weird moments. During the short ride Weisslogia kept saying how excited his son was to have everyone over, and although Yukino was a touch skeptical of that she just agreed as they eventually pulled into the driveway.

Once inside, Yukino placed her supplies on the kitchen counter and Sting came over to greet her. Weisslogia excused himself, saying that he had to get some work done, and went down the hall to his office. As soon as the office door closed the blond’s calm demeanor was quickly replaced by one of panic and stress. He began rambling about how he’d been trying to tidy up the house for the past hour so “Rogue doesn’t think I lived in a barn,” but despite his efforts his room was still a complete mess. Yukino couldn’t help but chuckle a little at her friend’s dilemma; never had she seen him care so much about neatness, not to this extent.

For the next half an hour the duo deep cleaned Sting’s room. It was a daunting task to complete in such a short amount of time, but with Yukino’s positive reinforcement and Sting’s nervous determination they were able to do it. Not five minutes after they came back down stairs and started getting out the ingredients for the pie the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the third member of their party.

Rogue came very prepared for the job with his algebra binder, a printed copy of the project requirements, and some minor baking supplies like a whisk, a spatula, and a pan. He said his hellos, put his things near the rest of the supplies, and then it was time for them to begin making the pie.

“Alright Master Chef Yukino, where do we start?” Sting asked.

“Wait, before we do anything do you have any aprons?” Yukino said.

“Aprons? What are we five?”

“It’s not baking without aprons. Plus, I don’t know about Rogue but I definitely don’t trust you not to spill anything on yourself.”

“Fine.”

Sting went over to a drawer and started digging through it to find the desired item. There were exactly enough for each of them: he threw the blue one to Yukino, the black one to Rogue, and he took the white one for himself. Immediately he regretted the decision while Yukino silently revelled in it: the aprons all had cheesy sayings on them. Her’s sported the phrase _BBQ Master_ , Sting’s said _#1 Dad_ , and Rogue was stuck with _Kiss the Cook_. Sting buried his head in his hands, wondering why Weisslogia would ever want to own such idiotic things.

“Alright now that we’re in the proper attire, let’s begin!”

Yukino started going over the steps in order to make the best pie possible. They made the dough first, each of the three taking turns putting ingredients in the bowl. When the responsibility fell on Sting to mix everything together he took the job a touch too seriously, smashing the fork into the bowl so hard that the batter was flying everywhere. Rogue quickly took the utensil out of the other boy’s hand, suggesting that he take over the task.

The next step was equally as chaotic, that being shaping the mixture into two flat discs. Yukino poured the necessary flour on to the counter as well as evenly divided up the dough so that no one would complain about the amount. From that point on it became a competition between Sting and Rogue as to who could make their allotted amount perfectly shaped.

“If math taught me anything it was how to make a circle,” Sting said.

“Really? Your homework would say otherwise,” Rogue retorted.

Everything stopped for a moment. Yukino hadn’t expected such a jab to come out of his mouth. And Sting? Well he took it as a declaration of war.

“Oh yeah _math wizard_ I bet I can make this dough better then you.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Oh you’re going to see it. My dough is gonna be so round we're going to use it as a frisbee.”

“Well my dough is gonna be so round _and_ flat that you’re going to mistake it for a cardboard cutout.”

At this point they were about one foot apart from each other and boasting about their “circle skills”, all while furiously shaping the dough. Yukino would have tried to intervene but she knew nothing would come of it. During this monstrosity Weisslogia came by to make sure everything was okay, and when she saw him she just smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Confused, Weisslogia just slowly went back to his office, trusting that she had everything under control.

After several minutes of arguing Yukino deemed the dough fit for refrigerating, wrapping each section in cling wrap and placed them in the fridge. The other two begged her to tell them who’s came out better but she refused, instead telling them to clean up the mess that they made. In the heat of the moment neither of them had cared to notice what a disaster zone they had caused. Flour covered the entire counter as well as the floor and the bowl was turned on its side. Rogue looked like a ghost: his apron as well as part of his hair was caked in white powder which sent Sting into a fit of laughter. This earned the blond a glare that quickly turned into a soft smile.

While they were cleaning up and preparing the ingredients for the filling the three friends just started talking, finding out a bit more about each other then when they arrived. Apparently Rogue also had a nasty case of motion sickness that forced him to walk to school everyday, which was great news for Sting.

“That’s awesome! Not about the motion sickness but hey now I’ll have someone to walk with!” Sting said, beaming. Realizing he might have come off a bit too strong he looked away and placed his hand behind his head as a distraction.

“You know… Only if you want to,” he said shyly.

“Yeah sure!” Rogue replied, “I usually walk with Gajeel but I’m sure he won’t mind if you come with us. He listens to his music most of the time anyway, so it would be nice not to have a one sided conversation for once.”

“Well you’re in luck because I talk enough for two.”

The conversation went on like this for a while, leaving Yukino to just stand there and watch it happen. She was surprised that they were talking so casually even though they were fighting 20 minutes ago. For the most part Sting warms up to people quickly, but this was a complete turnaround from what he had said about Rogue for the the entire school year. She wondered where his sudden fondness came from, and then a thought appeared. _What if… no it couldn’t be. But then again…_

Her pondering had to be put on hold for the dough was ready to take out of the refrigerator. Using her rolling pin Yukino flattened out one half of the soon-to-be crust and carefully placed it inside Rogue’s pan. They moved on to the filling, going about it the same way that they did for the dough. Sting redeemed himself on the mixing, keeping all of the apple chunks inside of the bowl and even successfully putting it into the pie pan. Rolling out the rest of the dough fell to Rogue and he was quite good at it, flattening it out just as thin as the bottom layer. After delicately putting it on top of the filling, Yukino went to go put their creation into the oven, only to realize that no one had pre-heated it.

“Wasn’t my job,” Sting and Rogue said in unision. Yukino just rolled her eyes and set it herself. As they were waiting she heard her phone go off from her bag. It was Sorano telling her that she was in the driveway, which took her by surprise considering she wasn’t expecting her older sister for at least another half an hour.

“Ok guys I’m sorry but Sorano’s here already so I have to go. When the oven goes off put the pie in and set the timer for 45 minutes. Good luck with the math and tell Weisslogia I say thanks for driving me. Oh! And send me a picture of the pie when it’s done. Bye!”

“Bye Yukino, thanks for helping us.”

“Yeah thanks! See ya in chemistry.”

Yukino waved goodbye then went through the garage and hopped into the front seat of her sister’s awaiting car. As they pulled away Sorano started asking how the project went. The younger sibling recounted what happened, the highs, lows, and inbetweens. Once she was done Sorano jumped right into stories about her first semester at college and how she had formed a tight knit group of friends. She talked for the whole rest of the ride but Yukino was only half listening. Her thoughts distracted her, specifically about the possible reason why Sting had completely changed his opinion on Rogue.

As the car pulled into the Agria’s driveway, Yukino suddenly wasn’t sure if the project was for math, or rather for chemistry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to Betty Crocker for the pie recipe. Anyway hope this was worth the wait! If you want to follow me I'm historyoflight on Tumblr. Also feedback is much appreciated. Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter is a bit different than the previous two, but I think you'll like it! It took a little longer to write than I anticipated, but I hope you enjoy!

Gajeel Redfox wasn’t known for being particularly quiet.

Everything about him screamed “loud,” from his piercings to his long black hair to his tall and muscular stature; whenever he entered a room he inadvertently commanded a presence. So it was unsurprising when the school librarian had to tell him to stop shouting for the third time, much to the chagrin of the short blue haired girl being subjected to his raucous rant.

“I’m sorry Levy but I just can’t help it. I’m so fucking pissed right now,” the teenager seethed.

It was the freshman’s free period and, as usual, him and his friend Levy McGarden met up in the second floor library. Gajeel had the uncanny habit of leaving his English homework to the last minute, so (with the promise of buying her lunch twice a week) Levy would come and help him. This time however the homework had been completely forgotten about, replaced with a one sided rage fueled conversation

“It’s just that over the past few months my two best friends have been leaving me out to dry. Juvia rarely sits at our table anymore, choosing to hang around that stupid looking kid she likes so much. And Rogue seems to have found himself a better set of people to eat with. Half the time I show up to the cafeteria and I’m the only goddamn one at the table! A little heads up would be nice once in awhile.”

He continued on with zeal for the majority of the period as his tutor just stared at him, trying to absorb all of the information being thrown at her. She liked Gajeel enough, but when he became angry or passionate about something he started to just speak at rapid speeds; she’d seen him get frustrated enough times to be able to handle the word vomit. When it seemed like he was finally starting to slow down, Levy decided to put her own two sense into the conversation.

“Look Gajeel, I know this may be hard to hear but sometimes friends don’t last forever. You may hang out with them every once in awhile but Juvia and Rogue seem to be moving on to other things. It doesn’t mean they don’t like you; they’re just expanding their interests you know?”

“Oh I know but do _you_ know Shrimp? Because last time I checked you’ve been hanging out with the same people since elementary school.”

The comment threw her off for a moment. It was true: she had meet her two closest friends, Jet and Droy, when they were all in fourth grade together. Despite this fact the bluenette did not appreciate being called out when she was trying to give advice, so the logical response was to use sass and sarcasm right back.

“Fine don’t listen to me. But I think I’m winning in the friend department.”

“Really? I think I’d rather be alone than with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. I’m surprised you put up with them.”

“And I’m surprised you just made a book reference. _Alice and Wonderland_ huh? I’ll bet you didn’t even read it, just watched the movie.”

“Ok now you’re getting off topic.”

“I didn’t get your answer.”

They bickered like this for the rest of study hall, ignoring all the strange looks they were getting from their fellow library patrons. The bell finally sounded overhead, ending the conversation and beginning their lunch period.

It was one of their “Gajeel buys Levy lunch” days so the two made their way down to the cafeteria in stubborn silence. Gajeel refused to admit that any of Levy’s advice was accurate, instead trying to act as though he was completely right to uphold his tough guy facade. She, however, was not having it and quickly saw through his ruse. Carefully choosing her words, she tried one last attempt to try and suggest a solution to her headstrong friend.

“Ok you might not want to take my advice, but I’m going to give it anyway. You complain that everyone is leaving you but you’re not doing anything about it. You try and act like it doesn’t affect you to uphold your masculinity or whatever but I know that you’re unhappy.”

“Is this a therapy session,” Gajeel groaned, ”I thought you were giving me advice.”

“I _getting_ there. Anyway, what you should do is tell Juvia and Rogue how you feel, because I’m sure that they’re not trying to hurt you. Then, maybe you should try and make friends with the people that they’ve started hanging out with. If you get to know them better then there’s a chance that you could eat with them should your table be empty.”

“Thanks for the help, Dr. McGarden.”

“That’s my job. So same time next week?”

She smirked at him as they entered the cafeteria. Gajeel revealed a small grin and the two made their way into the lunch line. He refused to admit that any of Levy’s advice was helpful, but he also knew that she didn’t need his acknowledgement. He was an open book, and she was the bookworm who knew all of the words on the page.

* * *

_Wait, what the hell does this mean?_

It was fifth period, which could only mean it was time for Gajeel’s “favorite” class: drama. He had absolutely no desire to be there, but after his schedule was messed up he had to choose a new elective, and this was the only one left. The class was taught by Mr. Leo (or Loke if you were friends with him), and it was clear that this was his dream job; let’s just say he had a natural flare for dramatics. Today’s assignment was to do something called improv, which Gajeel had never heard of before. It was a partner assignment, so he figured he could just leave the work to the other guy, but when he found out his partner was Erza Scarlet he knew that this wasn’t going to be that easy.

Erza was a sophomore and actually had a passion for this subject. He had heard stories about her being terrifying, but from what he saw there was no way that was true. Sure she was eccentric, but someone to be afraid of? Definitely not, especially after seeing her perform on stage. When she prepared for a scene she devoted every ounce of focus into making it perfect, but all that was forgotten by the time she stepped on to the wooden stage. Her stage fright made her a less than ideal partner, but she was part of Juvia’s new lunch table so Gajeel figured he could try and use this opportunity to get into the group. If what Levy said held any merit it was a foolproof plan.

The two sat next to each other as the first pair went up to perform.

“So,” Gajeel whispered, ”what is this improv thing?”

“You don’t know?!” Erza said a bit too loudly, “It’s my favorite thing! Ok when we go on stage Loke is going to give us a scene and we’re just going to have to do it. No preparation, no script, it’s amazing!”

“More like awful,” Gajeel muttered under his breath.

At this point, the first group was ready to start their scene. Mr. Leo gave them some ridiculous prompt, a five minute time limit, and then let them go. It didn’t take Gajeel long to figure out how this whole thing worked, so he just took out his phone and started inconspicuously listening to music. Erza, meanwhile, was watching intently to try and figure out a winning strategy, although her rambling thoughts made it hard for her to truly concentrate. _Ok so this first group’s prompt had to do with animals and I know for a fact that Loke was talking about getting dog…_ _Ok how can I play a dog?_

In each of their distracted states, neither Gajeel nor Erza realized that it was their turn to perform; Mr. Leo had to call them up three times. Gajeel slowly took the headphones out of his ear, wrapped them around his phone, and put it in his pocket before sauntering on stage. His partner practically climbed over the seats to get to the stage, beating him there by about 30 seconds. Once the two were standing there looking into the audience of their peers the drama teacher gave them their scene.

“Alright, this is one of my favorites so don’t screw up. Erza, you’re going to be playing an old lady trying to cross the street. Gajeel, you’re going to be playing a boy scout who’s helping the old lady cross the street. You guys have five minutes. And start!”

Erza quickly got into character, pretending to use a walker and bending over slightly to make herself appear smaller. It was a good start for her, but then she started speaking.

“W-well if it isn’t my favorite granddaughter come to help Granny cross this here bridge.”

Gajeel was dumbfounded for a second by Erza’s complete disregard of the script, but he knew that they would fail if he didn’t continue and he couldn’t afford another bad grade. So, ignoring the voices in his head screaming to stop, he rolled with what he was given.

“Why yes Granny it’s your… granddaughter, Susie, here to help you get across the bridge. If I do a good job will you sign off on my good deed badge for boy- I mean girl scouts?”

Every word made Gajeel want to die.

“Oh of course little Susie! Now quickly, let us cross the bridge. I think I left the oven on.”

Erza was visibly shaking but kept telling herself that she was doing a great job.

“Granny, I told you not to bake without supervision.”

“Dear child I wasn’t baking. I was roasting marshmallows in the fireplace for s’mores and never put out the fire.”

“...Ok let’s not worry about that right now. Here, hold on to me.”

The pair began to act like they were crossing a bridge, with Erza holding on to Gajeel’s arm for mock support. Then she started looking into the audience with a horrified expression, and he knew things were about to get weird.

“Susie look out! The dragon is coming for me! I knew that egg I used in my cake was suspicious. Oh sweetie, Granny never wanted to bring you harm, I’m so sorry it turned out this way. I’m a terrible grandmother.”

“No you’re not! What other grandma would take a _dragon’s_ egg and bake it into a cake? That’s like, the coolest thing I’ve ever heard. Now quick, we have to cross this bridge to get you away from the dragon and get me that good deed badge.”

They sped up their walking and made it to the other end of the stage. When they decided that it was far enough, the two looked at each other, a loving granddaughter to her Granny, and they embraced.

“Time!”

Gajeel immediately let go and stepped aside, embarrassment rising in his cheeks. He knew Erza’s stage fright was bad, but not this bad. Nothing they did pertained to the prompt, a big red F seeming inevitable. The silence of the room didn’t help matters; almost everyone was openly staring, some with mouths agape.

“Well,” Mr. Leo began, breaking the tension,” that was a very interesting interpretation. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it. I’ll have the grade in by this afternoon. You two can sit down.”

Gajeel and Erza walked off stage, Erza somehow beaming despite being the reason everything went haywire. _These are the type of people Juvia hangs out with? They’re even crazier then her! I don’t know if I could stand being with them all day. This was a bust._

Frustrated and dispirited, Gajeel returned to his seat, quickly drowning out the room around him with his music.

* * *

School had let out for the day and students were slowly making their way out of the building. Gajeel meandered to his locker, passing others doing the same thing, albeit a little slow for his taste. He grabbed the items that he needed and proceeded to wait by the predetermined meeting spot set up by him and Rogue. Ever since the two of them started walking home with Sting it always took them longer to get going. Those two would walk together from algebra, which meant double the chatting, double the locker stops, and double Gajeel’s waiting time. This was why he never left home without his headphones.

Right on schedule (meaning 10 minutes late), Rogue and Sting showed up and the trio starting making their way out the front door and onto the sidewalk. This was the second annoying thing about Sting tagging along: Gajeel became obsolete. The blond was _very_ talkative but surprisingly Rogue indulged him and could keep up with the conversation. Like right now for instance: they were excitedly discussing the grade on their latest algebra project, which judging by the wide grins on their faces was very good. Through all of this Gajeel’s headphones never left his ears.

In all honesty he didn’t hate Sting. Sure he could be a tad irritating at times but he appeared to be a likeable kid, and if Rogue liked him he couldn’t be too terrible. Gajeel just didn’t enjoy everything that came with his presence. Before it was just him, Rogue, and occasionally Juvia if she happened to missed the bus that day. He would listen to music while the two of them went on about their day, laughing about something that happened in class or complaining about a difficult test.

Now, Juvia was on the same bus as Gray so she wouldn’t miss it for the world, and Rogue and Sting had become so close that Gajeel often felt like the plus one. He resented the fact that he was being shut out by the person who’s been his friend since middle school, but he never expressed it because he wanted to hold on to the few remaining strands of their friendship. He turned up the volume of his music.

Zoning out for a few minutes, he let his feet take him down the familiar roads while his mind focused on the song blasting in his ears. In the midst of his daze he didn’t realize that they were at the opening of Rogue’s street. The boy waved goodbye to the group and went on his own way while the others kept going. This signalled the awkward part of the trip. The part when Sting and Gajeel were left alone.

Usually not a word was spoken between them, for Sting was slightly scared of Gajeel and Gajeel just never could find the words to say. Today though, he was trying something new. Sure it didn’t go so well with Erza, but he was determined to get to know at least one of the members of the groups that had taken his friends. So, referring back to what Levy had said earlier, he actually struck up a conversation.

“So uh… I heard you and Rogue talking about some project. What was that about?” Gajeel said, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“Oh, well about a month ago Ms. Libra made the class split off into pairs and literally make a pie. Crazy right? Rogue and I were partners and I got my friend Yukino to help us out. It was actually pretty fun, and we got an A on the project!” Sting replied.

“That’s cool, I guess.” Silence. Gajeel was not letting this die that fucking easily.

“Did… did anything happen when you guys were working on the project?”

A pause. “L-like what?”

“I don’t know, but ever since then Rogue barely hangs out with us anymore.”

“What are you saying? Are you accusing me of stealing Rogue or something?”

“Hey you said it not me.”

“It’s not my fault if he would rather hang out with us instead of you.”

Sting unknowingly had opened the floodgates for a verbal war. That comment sent Gajeel over the edge, and all of his repressed feelings suddenly released in a tsunami of vulgarities, insults, and raw emotion. The other boy just stood there and took it, wanting to defend himself but not being able to get a word in edgewise. He didn’t even know if there was a way to defend himself; Sting never knew that this was how Gajeel felt about the situation. For the first time in a while Sting was speechless.

Gajeel couldn’t stop himself. It felt so good to get everything out of his system, although a part of him knew that he was going overboard. He told Sting every little thing: how Rogue was _his_ friend first, how Rogue always sat with _him_ , how Sting had stolen Rogue away from _him_. The whole screaming fit took about five minutes, and when it was over he had a crazed look in his eye and was out of breath.

Sting just stared at him, trying to comprehend what just happened. There were so many things that had just been brought to light that it was hard to begin picking up the pieces. Nonetheless, Sting couldn’t leave the problem unresolved.

“That’s how you really feel, huh?” Sting began,”I can see where you’re coming from. If my best friend stopped hanging out with me I would be devastated too.”

Gajeel didn’t expect him to take this so well. After all the abuse, he thought there might be some tears.

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile now. I guess my brain decided to hit the eject button. I’m sorry about blowing up in your face; you didn’t deserve it.”

“It’s ok, really. I’m glad that you told me, even though it could’ve been less aggressive…” Gajeel looked away guiltily. “But if it helps, I don’t think Rogue is trying to hurt you. I know him, and I know that he would never do something to betray his friends. Yeah he hangs out with us all the time and I enjoy his company, but if you want him to sit with you I completely understand.”

Ok this way not what Gajeel was expecting at all. He was just given the opportunity he had been waiting for. But why did it not feel like a victory?

“You know, from the sounds of it I think Rogue has found himself a great group of friends already. I would feel bad to pull him away from that. Everyone else is moving on so I think that I just have to do the same.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you had all that wisdom in that big head of yours.”

“Hey watch it kid.”

Sting just laughed and the duo continued walking, not even fully realizing that they had stopped during the blowout.

“Man, from the way you talked er, yelled about Rogue I would almost think you had a crush on him,” Sting laughed, looking away slightly.

“Yeah sorry, I don’t swing that way.”

“Makes sense. You _do_ have a major crush on Levy.”

“The fuck did you just say?”

“Well it looks like this is my stop. Gotta go!”

With that Sting started running down the block while Gajeel started threatening him. As the blond got further and further away Gajeel couldn’t help but smile a little bit. It turns out that Rogue did have a good taste in friends. He couldn't say for the others, but it was clear that Sting cared a lot about him. Gajeel couldn’t ruin what had formed, so he made a mental note not to pressure Rogue into sitting with him.

Feeling surprisingly good with his decision he continued on his way towards his house. Metallicana was probably going to question why it took him so long to come home, but he would just make up some excuse about long traffic lights. As he walked the last block he picked up his earbud and placed it back in his ear, not remembering when he took it out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to those sticking with this despite slow updates. As always feedback is much appreciated, and thanks for reading!


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